


kick the tires and light the fires

by TooNerdyToHandle



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Crew as Family, M/M, Pike Lives, Star Trek Into Darkness, jim and sulu brotp, personal headcanons, possible canon deviation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 19:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12564844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooNerdyToHandle/pseuds/TooNerdyToHandle
Summary: The condensed life story of Hikaru Sulu.





	kick the tires and light the fires

**Author's Note:**

  * For [its_worse_than_that](https://archiveofourown.org/users/its_worse_than_that/gifts).



Hikaru Sulu was born in the middle of June in the heart of San Francisco. There was nothing abnormal about anything that day. The day outside was average for that time of year, the birth was all around average, nothing great, nothing horrible. Hikaru Sulu, however, had no intention of being average.

  
His parents were older, they had decided later into their lives and marriage to have children, and had already found a sturdy foundation in San Fran. They owned a small restaurant near the Academy, they lived in the apartment above it, and their lives revolved around their food and their son. His mother was the real cook. His dad could cook fine but his mother was always better. His dad was instead the gardener, which intrigued Hikaru far more than cooking. The first thing he could remember clearly was standing on their rooftop with his father as he tended his garden there. It intrigued Hikaru because even at four years old he understood that plants were not meant to grow on a concrete rooftop, and yet his father was doing it. His father explained in great detail (and in four-year-old vocabulary) exactly how it all worked, and from that day Hikaru was hooked on the whole thing.

  
His mother was the one that got him into fencing. Not that it was easy to teach a small child how to fence, but after Hikaru found her old fencing swords he wouldn’t leave her alone about it. It only took one Sunday morning to see that even being so little, he was _good_. So, Sunday became fencing day. 

Fencing with his mother, gardening with his father. It was a perfect arrangement, really.

  
It was in the rooftop in the garden that Hikaru first told his father about his crush on a boy. The boy was in his class, Brady, and Hikaru had discovered that he had a big, fat, giant crush on him. He told his father this, who simply responded; “Oh yeah? What’s he like?”. Hikaru grinned and told him everything about Brady, from the exact shade of green his eyes were to the way he seemed to be absolutely in love with anything to do with science. He told his mother the same things a during dinner that night, and she simply smiled and asked questions about this wonder boy. The crush only lasted another month maybe, but it was always nice for Hikaru to know that at even that young he had his parents’ support.

  
He fell in love with flying not long after. That, notably, had less support from his parents. They told him to do what he felt was right, of course, but they had been hoping their son would be the one to keep their restaurant going after they were gone. But at ten years old, watching shuttles take off from and land at the Academy, Hikaru knew that him taking over the restaurant was never going to happen. He wanted to be in those shuttles. He wanted to _fly_ those shuttles.

  
Despite his fascination with shuttles and really anything that flew, the Academy took a while to occur to Hikaru. It was a normal staple in his life, sure. He watched their shuttles, his family relied mostly on the business of hungry cadets, but it took him a while to look any further into it. He was still deeply in love with anything to do with plants, and he didn’t exactly consider that to be Starfleet’s area of interest. He decided on maybe being some kind of civilian pilot, then he could do whatever he wanted on the side.  
That was the plan, anyway, until Starfleet got a hold of his test scores. Hikaru knew he was smart, he knew he didn’t have to work as hard as most people to impress teachers and maintain excellent grades. It wasn’t something he focused on or bragged on, it was just part of who he was, and he accepted it. Apparently, though, he was something Starfleet looked for. He wasn’t genius level, not quite, but he wasn’t too far away either. A recruiter came to his school and asked for him personally. He turned her down at first and told her his plan for his life. She smiled and informed him that he didn’t have to give up his plants for Starfleet and that they always needed pilots.

  
Hikaru Sulu enlisted in Starfleet two months to the day after he graduated from school.

  
Upon his entrance into Starfleet, he immediately placed himself in the command track as a pilot, though he made sure to include some botany and fencing in his studies. By all means, he was excited to start this new part of his life. Until he met his roommate, anyway. James T. Kirk. Hikaru knew of George Kirk (of course he did, who didn't?) and also knew that Jim Kirk was his son. Jim Kirk, however, seemed to be a bit of mess. By all means, they seemed to be opposites from what Hikaru could gather. They were careful around each other, walking on eggshells more or less. This kept up for two weeks. Hikaru was worried it was going to keep up for _four years_ and began to wonder exactly how hard it would be to instead request that he get Pavel Chekov as a roommate (Pavel was an extremely young cadet, but the two of them had hit it off, and at least then Hikaru could be assured he actually _liked_ his roommate), but Kirk managed to save himself.

  
Kirk saving himself from a roommate swap in an initially very ungraceful fashion. 3 AM on a Friday morning found Jim Kirk off in a bar somewhere and Hikaru Sulu in bed. Jim had classes on Fridays, Hikaru knew that, but his classes didn’t start until later so from what Hikaru could gather that meant going off and partying somewhere. Hikaru, on the other hand, had an 8 AM, so he was going to bed thank you very much. To bed until Jim stumbled back into the room shortly after three in the morning, promptly tripping over God knows what, and making a sound loud enough to wake the dead and Hikaru. Hikaru groaned and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head. He could smell the alcohol.

“Seriously, Kirk?”

  
“Shit, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to- Shit.” Kirk apologized profusely before scraping himself off the floor and somehow making it to his bed. Hikaru shoved the pillow even more onto his head, and glared at the back of his eyelids and tried to find sleep again.

  
Hikaru was able to squeeze in another hour of sleep before class. He still left exhausted, though, and had a hard time paying attention or keeping his eyes open. And yeah, he was a little pissed off at Kirk. After his classes for the morning were over, he sluggishly made his way back to the dorm, thinking that maybe he would take a nap before finding something for a late lunch or early dinner, whichever came first. However, upon punching in the room code, he was greeted by Jim Kirk standing there, bouncing nervously, a take-out box in hand. “Sulu! Hey, I just- Look, I’m really fucking sorry for last night. You had an 8 AM this morning I shouldn’t have woken you up like that. I, uh, I brought you lunch,” Kirk held out the take-out box. “I talked to that little Russian kid, I know you guys are friends, and he, uh, he said your parents owned a restaurant just off campus so I went. Your dad, at least I think it was your dad, he, uh, he said this was your favorite so, uh, here,” he held the carry out box out a little further. “I’m really sorry, I know this doesn’t make up for it, but-” All the exhaustion and anger inside Sulu suddenly melted down and he grinned, taking the take-out box.

  
“No, no, don’t worry about it. We’re good. This was, uh,” he gestured with the box, “this was really nice of you. Thanks, Kirk.” Jim seemed to melt with relief on the spot.  
“Seriously? Oh, my God, I was so worried you’d hate me. I swear, it won’t happen again,” Kirk glanced quickly toward the alarm clock on Hikaru’s side table. “Shit! I gotta be in class in five, I gotta go.” And with that he was gone out the door, leaving Hikaru thinking that maybe having Kirk as a roommate wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  
Having Kirk as a roommate wasn’t all bad after all. In fact, it was great. They weren’t as dissimilar as they thought, and once they took a moment to look past base appearances, they hit it off much in the same way Hikaru and Chekov had. Chekov integrated himself into their friend group with ease. Jim loved him just as much as Hikaru did. Jim’s friend Leonard also made the cut. Though it was very obvious to Hikaru very early on that they both liked the other as more than _just friends_ whether they knew it or not. Chekov apparently noticed too, and he and Hikaru started a bet between the two of them for some credits as to when exactly they would get together. The four of them somehow became a staple around the Academy, which frankly, Hikaru didn’t mind one bit.

  
As for having anything past friends, Hikaru didn’t really consider himself having the time. He was buried in coursework and flight training, and not having a boyfriend didn’t bother him. He had Len, Jim, and Pavel, and that was enough for him. Until Len introduced them to Ben, that was. Ben was a second-year cadet like the rest of them, in medical with Len, about the same age too and already holding a medical degree. To say Ben and Hikaru got along well from the start would be an understatement. The two of them got along like a house on fire. They forgot about the rest of the group rather quickly, which apparently the remaining three found worthy of a tease. By the time they left, Hikaru had mustered up the courage to ask Ben out on a date. He simply grinned in return and said absolutely.

  
One date with Ben turned into three, three turned into five, and five turned into being boyfriends. Len claimed to have called it, and given that Len and Jim had also dug their heads out of their asses, Hikaru retorted that he had called that too. Hikaru swore up and down that Len turned the same color as a ripe tomato.

  
At the end of their second year, Ben broke the news to Hikaru that he wasn’t staying at the Academy. He liked Starfleet, he did, but it just wasn’t for him. He liked being able to treat people on his own terms, not Starfleet’s. He wasn’t like Len, born to be a trauma surgeon, and he said that if he was being perfectly honest with himself he would have to learn for Starfleet. He had gotten the offer to establish his own little practice in a small town outside of San Francisco that apparently needed one desperately, and he planned on taking it. Hikaru was upset about not being able to see him as much, but he wasn’t about to stop Ben from doing what made him happy. Besides, if their relationship was going to keep up they were going to have to get used to distance with one of them being in Starfleet.

  
Initially, the third year at the Academy went off without a hitch. Jim was on track to keep his bet with Captain Pike that he could finish in three years. Pavel was on track to be fast-tracked onto a ship early, especially for someone his age. Len was finally getting comfortable with flying. Hikaru was quickly rising to being one of the best up and coming pilots. His relationship with Ben hadn’t faltered in the slightest, and God, Hikaru was so in love with him. Everything was verging on perfect.

  
And then there was the shuttle crash.

  
It was some kind of Starfleet flight test. Protocol. Standard procedure. It sounded simple enough to Hikaru. He had passed all of their other flight tests with flying colors. He wasn’t worried. He knew his copilot, due to their similar tracks. Cadet Otera. They had been paired up before and had some sense of familiarity. She was a good pilot too, he trusted her and liked her.

  
It was neither of their faults the shuttle crashed.

  
All shuttles went through routine maintenance checks while they were being used. Engineering apparently missed something on the last one or something cropped up in between checks and the computer didn’t recognize it. They weren’t even in the air for three minutes before they lost control and crashed back to the ground. Hikaru remembered the impact, then nothing until waking up in Medical.

  
Ben, trying so hard not be upset, smiling and saying _Good morning, Sunshine_ , despite it no longer being morning.

  
Len, telling him _You got lucky, flyboy_ and trying not to let the concern show.

  
Pavel looking like a deer caught in the headlights and looking even younger than he already was until Hikaru could muster a small smile to give him.

  
And then Ben explaining so slowly and gently that Otera had been killed on impact. That the brunt of the impact had been received by her side of the shuttle. She hadn’t even stood a chance. Hikaru already knew that her mothers would be burying a child, and her little brother a sibling. Ben, Pavel, and Len all assured him there was nothing he could have done, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like there was.

  
His parents wouldn’t arrive until the next day. They had been on their first vacation since Hikaru was a kid, and couldn’t find a shuttle back sooner. Hikaru wouldn’t feel the full impact of exactly what had happened until they arrived and he saw the looks on their faces.

  
Jim arrived late too. Not as late as Hikaru’s parents, but later than Ben or Pavel (Len had been working in Medical that day, and had insisted on assisted with anything Hikaru needed). No one had been able to reach him to tell him, he had left his comm in the dorm that morning by accident. Instead, he found out from the story making its way around campus. He would confess to Hikaru later that no one seemed to know who had died, only that someone had, and the fear of it being Hikaru scared the hell out of him, even years later. He would also confess the guilt over the brief few seconds of utter relief when he realized it was Otera instead.

  
Len stood out in the lobby of Medical and waited for Jim when they realized that he probably knew by that point despite no one there telling him, and would be leaving one of his back to back afternoon classes that day to run straight to Medical. It was a correct assumption.

  
Jim comes in trailing behind Len, almost like he’s still afraid of what he might see. He makes his way to Hikaru’s bedside slowly, looking him up and down. He let out a small sigh of relief and leaned down, hugging Hikaru gently. Hikaru couldn’t do much more than set a hand on his back. That awkwardly angled hug would be the first and only time they ever said _I love you_ to each other.

  
They all stay in the room with him that night. It’s crowded, and Hikaru assures all four of them multiple times that they can go home (despite not really wanting to be alone), but they stay anyway. The rule is technically family only after visiting hours, but according to Len, Phil Boyce had pulled some strings to let them all stay.

  
The rest of the year almost goes okay. Almost. Hikaru was, understandably, a little gun-shy when it came to flying. He still loved it, but he was having a hard time finding the same confidence he had had before the shuttle crash. Starfleet was cutting him a little slack though; they still knew what he was capable of.

  
And then there was the distress call to Vulcan. It was something akin to baptism by fire when it came to relearning how to fly. Forgetting about the _goddamn parking brake_ didn’t help any when it came to those confidence levels.

  
But then they arrived at Vulcan and flying that ship somehow became instinctual. He didn’t have time to consider exactly what he was doing or if he was even _capable_ of doing it, he just did it.

  
Really, it was that drill that scared the hell out of him. And even then, it wasn’t until he fell off the drill. When he screamed for Jim (of course Len snuck him on board _of course he did_ ), feeling himself slipping off the side of the drill, realizing he had no parachute, his mind settled on _You’re going to die. You’re going to smash into the surface of Vulcan, and you are going to die._

  
But Jim and Pavel somehow saved the day, and he had never felt better about smashing into a transporter platform despite the fact that it _hurt like hell_.

  
The rest of everything to do with Nero happened in a blur. Jim getting thrown off the ship and then somehow coming back to take command and save it with some random engineer because that was just the Jim Kirk way of doing things. Saving Pike, destroying the Narada, creating a huge black hole _on purpose_ and narrowly getting away from it.

  
It was in the few days of crawling towards home waiting on the Lovell for a tow that he was able to process everything. The first night was arguably the worst. He returned to his quarters (alone, apparently the cadet who had been intended to be his roommate was killed when they took fire from the Narada) and simply sat on the bed staring at the wall. There was no use in comming Ben, he wouldn’t get the message for a day at least. Len was busy as acting CMO. Jim was _commanding the entire freaking ship_ , and he had no idea where Pavel was. It was the perfect opportunity to think, but Hikaru found himself not wanting to think about what had happened. An entire race had nearly been obliterated. A class of cadets was now nearly barren. Probably what accounted for half of the fleet just…. Gone.

  
He hadn’t realized much time had passed when his door chimed. He gave a usual _come in_ and the door slid open, revealing Jim Kirk. He stayed that night, and every night until they finally got home. He didn’t feel right sleeping in the captain’s quarters, and Len didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in the CMO quarters. Jim also didn’t want to intrude on Len’s roommate, so came to Hikaru instead. Neither of them could deny the comfort in the two of them sharing quarters.

  
The first week home was hell. Memorials, scrambling to assemble to the point where the fleet could function, questionings of all the crew as to what exactly had happened up there. They were all hailed as heroes. Hikaru didn’t really feel like one.

  
However, being part of the crew did invite the opportunity for getting to know more people. Mostly the people who were now considered the senior bridge crew, despite the fact that all but two of them were still technically cadets. In fact, the seven of them meshed together rather well and quickly. Even Jim and Spock, despite their displays on the bridge.

  
They had been back for a month when Ben quietly asked one night while they were lying in bed if Hikaru had ever thought about getting married. Ben had been there for most of the duration of them being home, knowing Hikaru needed him. He didn’t even seem to mind having to close up shop at his practice for a few days.

  
Hikaru promptly rolled over to face him, and by the time the conversation was done, they had decided on, yes, they wouldn’t mind getting married one bit.

  
They married a few days after Jim was officially made the captain of the _Enterprise_. Jim officiated with his newfound captain power in such matters. Jim swore he didn’t shed a tear, but everyone else present as the small gathering swore he shed several.

  
Everything slowly turned into a new normal. The Enterprise was fitted with a new warp core. Ben and Hikaru started having the children conversation (they both wanted kids, for the record). Jim stepped into his captaincy with ease and possibly just a little arrogance. The senior crew continued to mesh together and figure how to work together the most efficiently.

  
And then John Harrison came into the picture.

  
Captain Pike narrowly escaping death. Jim wanting nothing more than revenge and, damn it, Hikaru wanted it to. And then they uncovered something so much bigger than any of them, and narrowly escaped their total and utter destruction once more. Hikaru had no time to put it together on his own how the core came back online and ceased the freefall they were in. He was too preoccupied piloting back to safety and then commanding the ship.

  
It was Pavel that told him.

  
He pulled Hikaru off to the side of the bridge and whispered into his ear. _Jim fixed the core. The radiation killed him. He didn’t stand a chance._ Hikaru’s stomach plummeted and everything seemed to blur for a moment. And then his brain shouted  _No, no, maintain control, you’re in command, maintain control_. He set his hands on Pavel’s shoulders and leaned into them for a moment, sucking in a deep breath. Pavel grabbed his arms and pulled him in closer again. 

_Len thinks he can save him._

  
Hikaru was careful to not put too much hope into what he believed was impossible. Of course, Len would try to save him. It was Len, and this was Jim. It was a given that there be some kind of effort. He didn’t even see Len through the next week. He was tucked away with Dr. Boyce and occasionally Spock in some lab in Starfleet Medical that Hikaru apparently didn’t have the clearance to go into. He spent the week with Ben and his own parents instead. His parents' restaurant had been damaged when the Vengeance had crashed, so he and Ben helped them get everything back in order. Occasionally, Sulu would be called away by Starfleet. He would check in at Medical every day without fail. No one could seem to be able to tell him everything.

  
Halfway through the week, he got the idea to ask Pike. He hadn’t been discharged yet, and likely knew what was going on. Pike seemed to have as many answers as Hikaru did. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, or if it was going to work. He did, though, seem to know exactly how much grief Hikaru was feeling.

  
The end of the week, he finally got a text from Len.

  
_Moved him to a room. You can come see him if you want._

  
Hikaru didn’t go to see Jim. He still didn’t want to get his hopes up. He went for Len instead. When he finally got Len’s attention away from the monitors and readouts, they hugged and cried and fell to the floor.

  
It took another nearly two weeks for Jim to wake up. Hikaru was nearly positive he had never felt a stronger wave of relief in his life.

  
Two weeks after that, Hikaru and Ben found out they were approved for adoption.

  
“Ben, they’re thinking of sending us on a five-year mission. Five years in deep space with you and a child left here?” the anxiety of _this is a real scenario now_ was setting in for Hikaru. Ben shrugged under the covers.

  
“Then we figure something out.”

  
“Maybe we should wait until after the mission is over.”

  
“And if they send you on another after that?”

  
“I… I don’t know.” Ben seemed to consider something for a moment.

  
“Didn’t you say they’re nearly done with that new space station in deep space?”

 

“What, Yorktown? Yeah, another six months and they should be ready.”

  
“And you’re going to use it for maintenance checks and restocks and that kind of thing right?” Hikaru gave his husband a small nod. Ben grinned. “And just how hard would it be to move there?”

  
Six weeks later they were the fathers of a little girl named Demora. She was just over a year old, walking still a little wobbly and just learning to talk. She had deep brown eyes that Hikaru fell in love with the moment he saw them.

  
She had three godfathers. They all cried the first time they held her. She was entranced with Jim’s blue eyes. She ran her hand along the stubble Len had not yet shaved and tangled her fingers in Pavel’s curls.

  
Hikaru decided that this was the most perfect life he could get.

**Author's Note:**

> So um. No idea where this came from. I just went to work on another fic and Hikaru Sulu completely invaded my thinking space. I don't know how it got this long either. Like I said, this is based mostly on personal headcanons which not everyone will follow or has to follow. It occasionally deviates from canon two but, hey, shit happens.


End file.
